An icy interior, a Giger-esque monster, a melting enemy, and the departure of a companion: if 'The Long Game' felt like a 21st century version of Dragonfire - complete with dodgy slang and canteen scene, but without the Shirley Temple kid - then, for me, that was no bad thing. In many ways, this was the most 'science fictiony' of the new series to date, with the cyberpunk elements in the 'living computer' scenes suggesting that Russell, like Cartmel before him, knows his Cronenberg and William Gibson.

This also felt more like 'Doctor Who' than we've come to know it lately. The decision to let Rose and the Doctor take more of a back seat than usual allowed the supporting cast to come to the fore, among whom were some familiar Whovian archetypes: the boy genius, the freedom fighter and the slick-tongued villain sneering at the Doctor's 'Time Lord' pedigree. Unusually, given that this was a Russell T. Davies script, the story didn't sacrifice suspense to pace; there were several jump-out-of-your-seat shocks, and at least one genuine moment of peril, as Adam writhed in cybernetic agony, forced to sacrifice his knowledge of the Doctor at who knew what personal cost?

From interviews with the production team, beforehand, you'd have thought that they were working a little too hard to convince us of the appropriateness of Simon Pegg's performance. But, in the event, there was nothing to complain about: Pegg brought to the part an estuary twang and gutter carnality, befitting a symbol of the worst excesses of Wapping 'journalism'.

Less successful, however, was the characterisation of the Doctor. Magnanimous on a universal sacale, but capable of pettiness, petulance and possessiveness on a personal one, particularly where Rose's boyriends are concerned, too often the Doctor comes across like a surly political activist, who has pulled the prettiest girl on the housing estate and isn't allowing anyone else to get a look in. I'm not particularly sure that this is a Doctor I like, still less one I would ever want to travel with; and this in itself marks a significant change in the way I respond to the series. Even in the days of Colin Baker would-be-strangling his companion, there was something reassuring about the figure of the Doctor, smiling out at me from the title sequence and commanding every narrative by sheer force of character. In the final scene, here, however, as Adam's punishment far exceeds his crime, the Doctor seems motivated as much by sexual jealousy as moral outrage. Adam is condemned to a life of mediocrity with an alien technology in his head, and the Doctor's response is callously to finger-click. Worse still, Rose temporarily loses her trademark empathy, siding with the Doctor, as the script plays Adam's predicament purely for laughs. Russell has hinted that a future story will see the revelation as to who installed the Jagrafess and why. The sequel I want to see, however, is the one involving Adam. Adam's fate hereon seems either melancholy, madness or medical curiosity, and if he were to return at a later date to take his revenge on the Doctor, I, for one, wouldn't blame him. Here's hoping Bruno Langley is in it for the long game yet.

Russell T Davies, you bastard. I find it deeply distressing that one man can be so talented. In forty five minutes – forty five bloody minutes! – you delivered a sly satire of contemporary politics and media (I cannot wait to see how the Murdoch press reviews this episode), an intriguing examination of what it takes to be an assistant and a thrilling and chilling science fiction story. Oh, and you wrapped it up with one of the funniest gags I have seen for a long time. This script should be dipped in gold and put on the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Of course the trouble with a script this good is that you find directors, set designers, lighting engineers and all the myriad of behind the scenes people who rarely get their deserved praise feel compelled to step up to the challenge. Technically the episode was superb – yes, I noticed the CGI lens flare on the external shots and, yes, it was beautiful.

With all of these technical wonders in place it became inevitable that actors would come scurrying out like the rodents that they really are. King Rat was Simon Pegg as The Editor delivering a master class in being scary and unsettling for no discernable reason. I desperately want to hate him for being so talented but “Spaced” and “Shaun of the Dead” revealed that Pegg is just a fanboy living the dream and, as such, deserves all the success that he is enjoying.

The character of Cathico showed more development in one episode than most other characters get in a series and Christine Adams’ subtle performance neatly portrayed this.

Adam (Bruno Langley) was just slimy enough for the purpose of the story but not so irritating that he threatened to usurp Adric’s position as most hated companion (I didn’t realise for years that there was no music at the end of “Earthshock” as I was too busy laughing). If we compare the Doctor’s attitude to Adam to that he showed towards Turlough then we see that this is a very different Doctor with less patience and less time and I wonder if how this will replay having seen the entire season.

Last week I said that “Dalek” would not be topped and I was wrong. I started this review with the words “Russell T Davies, you bastard”. I stand by that comment.

In addition to being an anorak (and proud of it) I am also a counsellor in training. One of the main counselling theories is Carl Roger’s Humanistic approach which states that everyone has the desire and drive to achieve their best and that a counsellor can help them to realise this but the person already has the ability to achieve this. A fairly convoluted sentence but one which I feel is relevant as Christopher Eccleston is the Humanistic Doctor. While some people have criticised him as not always being in the thick of the action, I see this Doctor as manipulating events and people to allow them to resolve the situation and leaves them with the confidence to improve their lives.

Had the Doctor defeated the Editor in Chief and left then humanity would have taken years to recover but by giving the required information to Cathica and allowing her to be the victor he has left humanity with someone possessing the self confidence to get history back on track. This is a Doctor who truly loves humanity and wants people to achieve greatness for themselves.

After last week's "Dalek", which I found ultimately disappointing, I was hoping that "The Long Game" would live up to the promise of the intriguing trailers. It did. The plot was classic Doctor Who - the Doctor and his companions arrive on a space station in the distant future, where life seems to be going on as normal. But something is wrong. The 4th Great and Bountiful Human Empire is not as great, or as bountiful, as it should be - something is holding back their technology and their society. As the episode unfolds, we discover that those who get promoted to floor 500 never return - something is lurking up there, directing everything, controlling the lives of every single human being by manipulating the news media. In a nice little nod to the series' previous incarnations, you don't see the alien until the end of the episode, and while the toothy CGI Jagrafess was a bit of a let down, it still looked more scary than, say, a big rubbery glowing blob, or a man made from licourice allsorts.

The episode is a very obvious and at times unsubtle satire on the modern media, with all the galaxy's news manipulated by the Editor (played with gleeful menace by Simon Pegg, who stole every scene he was in) in order to turn humanity into a race of unquestioning conformists. There were some more subtle moments, such as when the Doctor confronted Cathica over the absence of aliens on Satellite 5. Defending the strict immigration controls, she could only cite vague "threats," reflecting the current climate of distrust created by politicians and the media on matters of immigration and asylum.

The acting was at times excellent - Simon Pegg stuck a wonderful balance between pragmatic self-interest and hand-rubbing evilness - and at others, poor. Bruno Langley's Adam never really moved beyond "irritating idiot side-kick," making it quite a relief when the Doctor got rid of him, and the character of Suki, while no more fleshed-out than the usual "first victim of the alien" role, seemed a rather unlikely freedom fighter. And mention should briefly be made of the moment when, as his brain absorbs information directly from Satellite 5's computer, Adam's mobile transmits glowing blue light to his mother's answerphone, destroying any suspension of disbelief that had been built up.

All in all, a thoroughly watchable episode - inventive, satirical, and with one or two genuinely scary moments. Classic Doctor Who with a very modern slant.

It seemed unavoidable that “The Long Game” would mark the end of a long week’s comedown after the exceptionally brilliant “Dalek.” Had “The Long Game” been up to the standard of any of the first five episodes, it would STILL have been a comedown after “Dalek”, but sadly it didn’t keep up the high standards set by the new series at all.

I don’t want to focus on the negative, but the space station just looked like the same set as Platform One, re-hashed. Of course, being “Doctor Who” that’s forgivable but I’ve come to expect more from this brilliant new series. The monster with the unpronounceable name – feeble. The realisation was dire. The plot – NOT the character story, the science-fiction story – abysmal. Moreover, I don’t know whether it was just my reception or not but in the opening scenes the dialogue was virtually inaudible over the score (I’m not slagging the score off… it was especially brilliant last week… it was just too loud this week!)

I had to look hard for things I liked about “The Long Game,” for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about “Paradise Towers” afterwards. Must be the elevator! The whole episode had that awful studio-bound money-saving “filler story” feeling to it. It really was that bad!

I liked the premise of a companion that couldn’t cut it – it hadn’t really been done before. To actually have Adam as a threat was a stroke of genius. Even the reality TV / propaganda angle was interesting; the problem was that the plot didn’t grab me at all – it just wasn’t very good.

As for the character story, the sub-plot as it were, that I felt was well done, if a little rushed. It took Adam far too little time to decide that he was no match for the Doctor in Rose’s eyes; though I can see why it was put in so early because Adam needed to take off on his own for the purposes of the main plot. I liked the closing scene where the Doctor frog-marched Adam into the TARDIS on Satellite Five then straight back out into his living room in 2012. The last scene with Adam’s Mother clicking his fingers was the episode’s highlight for me, at least in comedic terms.

The only thing good about the episode at all, really, was Simon Pegg as the Editor. He portrayed the character with a cold humour which suited him very well; it’s a shame Russell T. Davies couldn’t concoct a better story for him to star in.

I’m very sorry that this review is so negative – I’m a huge fan of the series and I’m so happy we have it back it’s just that I didn’t enjoy the episode. I think the first six episodes have been excellent and I’m a huge fan of Russell T. Davies’ work, and while I can see the potential of this episode it just came off as cheap and throwaway, second-class. Borders closed to aliens? Another space station? Talk about a money-saving show! The Psychic paper… even the Face of Boe, nearly five million years younger, popped up again!

One MAJOR criticism. Thirteen episodes. Eleven likely set on Earth, two in orbit of Earth!!!! I hope I’m wrong and the final two-parter takes us off to an alien world somewhere, just for a change!

I’ve always thought some “Doctor Who” stories were poor. “Paradise Towers,” “Creature From The Pit,” “Frontios”… the list goes on. You have to take the rough with the smooth I’m afraid; nothing’s perfect. To end on something positive, though, the trailer and the plot summary for next week’s episode looks absolutely brilliant. I for one can’t wait!

Well, that was kinda different.

This was another first for TV Doctor Who -- an example of how sometimes, the Doctor might up and pick up someone who is NOT cut out to travel in the TARDIS.

Adam, who you might remember survived the events of the Van Statten Complex last episode in "Dalek," has well, how to put this? Turned out to be a bit of a dipshit. Unlike Rose, who took everything that she's seen so far with a sense of amazement and childlike wonder, Adam was taken to one era (The Fourth Human Empire) and tried to capitalize on it in his own time, by first not only using the cell phone the Doctor gave Rose to call his house and relay future history to his voicemail; but then up and goes and gets a tactical neural implant. And not just ANY implant -- the kind that opens a door on your forehead, revealing your brain, and capable of receiving a compressed information stream, which Adam then tries to call home and record.

So, yeah, abusing not only the Doctor's tech, but trying to bring far future tech into our century? Never a good idea. And the Doctor realizes his mistake, and for the first time ever, merely dumps the fool off at home. Not that the Doctor seemed to mind too much, even before he mucked about -- there was definitely some jealousy there, with Adam around Rose. Hmmm, you don't think? ;-)

Oh yeah, and there was some story happening too, something about an information satellite having been corrupted by am alien parasite thingy, and with Shaun of the Dead in charge of things, and humanity in a cyberpunk/Blade Runner type future setting going backwards because of the parasite....

But you know, it was kinda secondary to the real story in the end -- that sometimes, schmucks come aboard the TARDIS too.

I'm not a person who watches particularly masses of television, and as such I hadn't sampled any of Russel T Davies' work until the new adventures of Doctor Who graced our screens. As such, I was quite intrigued by the veritable waterfalls of liquid gold that drenched his reputation in the excited and egaer run-up to the 26th March. I pondered whether Davies was genuinely as talented as the magazines, websites and newspapers so enthusiastically proclaimed, or if this was only a generous dollop of varnish as a component of pre-series hype. Having watched four of the Davies-penned episodes now (Rose; Aliens of London; World War III; The Long Game), I regret to conclude that the latter is the case. All of the adventures that Russel has written are hit-and-mostly-miss: if you'd excuse the contorted metaphor, there are occasional great peaks of brilliance and ingenuity in the topography of the episode's integrity, yet these great vantage points look out over an uninspiring landscape of humdrum, monotonous level plains and a few plummeting abyssal crevasses of simply dreadful ineptitude that set you squirming.

"The Long Game" is unfortunately no exception to this model. To its credit, there are excellent production values manifest in this episode. The sets are marvellously designed and convincingly constructed - Level 139 is bustling and thriving, but equally cloying and oppressive, just like a real congested centre of humanity, and the icy, harsh, sharp-edged domain of Level 500 is very professionally made: there's not even the slightest suggestion of the wobbly cardboard that undermined the drama in so many of Eccleston's predecessors' adventures. The CGI is also impressive, with the viscous slime-sheathed alien looking genuinely organic and the image of dawn in space construed of genuine gold (even if it was hideously clichйd). I particularly enjoyed Adam's subplot - he acts extremely well, conveying the incredulity and incomprehension of the most pronounced culture shock that someone can ever be subjected to perfectly, and Davies does tie his bumbling misadventure into the main plot effectively. The summary expulsion of Adam from the TARDIS (is one single adventure the shortest tenure for any Companion?) I think is also a good way for detailing the character of the Doctor: like when he was proclaiming victory over his chained nemesis in "Dalek", Eccleston's incarnation of the Doctor has a savage undercurrent. Adam's error in trying to send back data to the past (silly boy - has he never watched "Back to the Future"?), whilst severe, is understandable - he is a virgin time traveller unaccustomed to such things after all. Yet the Doctor sees fit to use this one mistake as an excuse to terminate his berth on the TARDIS and also to consign him to a life sentence of insignificance and obscurity thanks to the encumbering albatross of his cranial implant, when as a genius he's supposed to be a person who's going to make his mark in the world. Meting out this fate takes vindictiveness to a whole new level!

I would have liked Adam to have stayed on longer, but who knows - he might return someday. If Mickey the Idiot can investigate a comprehensive profile of the Doctor, it shouldn't pose much trouble for Adam the Genius.

But despite the limited and individual positive sections I mentioned in the second paragraph, the overarching theme of the episode is riven with so many holes that Davies was probably eating a sandwich with Swiss cheese on it whilst writing. It's difficult to appreciate Suki being a "freedom fighter" when she has a handbag around her shoulder whilst pointing guns... and if she's been killed, how is she supposed to be able to latch onto the Editor's foot to prevent his escape? It may be justice, but it's frankly illogical. Furthermore, the way the crisis is resolved - the journalist just STANDING THERE and listening to the long exposition before toddling off to make everything better was painful to watch. Also, if Adam has only been abaord the TARDIS for a short while how does he know "everything the Doctor knows"? The resolution of the main plot was also far too neat and sanguine - everything accelerating back to normal? When you destroy the controller the result is invariably anarchy and chaos. The Doctor acting as some great revelationary angel - breezing in, making grand society-convulsing seismic changes to humanity, and zipping back out in the blink of an eye - is corny beyond belief.

I know that this is only a nitpick, but since when did Yale manufacture a line of TARDIS keys?

So, altogether, I have to conclude that this episode is an average one. It has its moments, and when those moments arrive they are marvellous. Yet they're only transitory, and are painted against a tedious backdrop. The trailer for "Father's Day" looked mightily impressive - but it's a cause for worry when the seconds-long snippets for a forthcoming episode provoke your interest more than the preceding complete one...